199 UK returnees will be traced by Thursday night: K'taka Health Minister

Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Thursday exuded confidence that the 199 returnees from the United Kingdom who went untraceable will be tracked by the end of the day.

Desperate to prevent the spread of the UK mutation of the coronavirus, the Karnataka government is tracking all those who returned from Britain.

So far, seven people were found infected by the new variant of the virus. Speaking to reporters here, Sudhakar said 199 people were untraceable of which 97 are foreign nationals, which is why the government was unable to find their contact numbers.

Now, the Home Department is trying to find them out. ''Of the 199 people, 24 were identified on Wednesday.

Most probably, we will find out the rest of the people by the evening,'' the Minister said. Of the 1,614 people who have arrived from the United Kingdom, 30 had tested positive for COVID-19 using the RT-PCR method, he said.

Besides them, four of their contacts too were found infected with the virus. ''As you all know that seven were found infected with the mutated version of COVID-19, which the Centre has already announced. After that no new cases have come to the light,'' he explained.

The 30 UK returnees and four of their contacts have tested positive for coronavirus, the minister said adding, the state government is treating 34 people in the hospital under strict medical supervision.

''All of them are stable. None of them have any serious ailment. We are also keeping a close watch on all the people who were in contact with them,'' Sudhakar said.